Indonesia seeks death sentence for drugs suspect

Page Tools

Indonesian police today vowed to make an example of an
Australian woman who could face a firing squad for allegedly
smuggling drugs into Bali.

Prosecutors have promised to seek the toughest possible sentence
for Schapelle Leigh Corby, who could be put to death over a 4.1kg
cannabis haul found in her luggage when she arrived on the resort
island on October 8.

Police today handed to prosecutors a thick red file of evidence
against Corby - a first step to trial.

The head of Bali's drug squad, Lieutenant-Colonel Bambang
Sugiarto, said there would more talks between prosecutors and
detectives before charges were finalised.

Authorities can hold Corby for up to 60 days before laying
charges.

Sugiarto said police would push for the toughest possible charge
slate against the 27-year-old Gold Coast woman, who says the
cannabis was planted without her knowledge.

"It's a drug case and it must be the toughest so that it will
intimidate others who try to copy her," Sugiarto said.

"There are warnings about the penalties at the airport in many
areas, so we need to do this."

The beauty therapy school student from Tugan on the Gold Coast
was arrested at Bali airport after an X-ray of her luggage revealed
an unusual object in her unlocked bodyboard bag.

Customs officers found the cannabis when they inspected the
bag.

Sugiarto said police were still running tests on the cannabis to
see whether it came from Australia or was grown in Indonesia.

Corby's defence lawyer Lily Lubis said she was seeking
information from Qantas on how much Corby's baggage weighed when
she checked in for her Bali holiday.

The bag was unlocked and could easily have been opened by
someone seeking to use Corby as an unwitting courier, she said.

But a police spokesman said there was no weight difference on
record.

Lubis said police would be unable to use the draconian article
82 drugs laws providing for the death penalty unless they were able
to prove the drugs were stashed by Corby.

"It's their job to prove where it came from, whether it came
from Australia," she said.

Sugiarto denied a test result pointing to Indonesian-grown drugs
would force police to free Corby.

"We don't want to dwell on where it came from. What is important
is that we tested it and it was positive for marijuana," he
said.

Corby herself has tested negative for drugs in blood and urine
tests.

She has been been held in a cell at Denpasar police headquarters
since her arrest on October 8 after flying from Brisbane via Sydney
to Denpasar with two female friends and her younger brother for a
two-week stay in Bali, where her sister Mercedes lives.

Indonesia has some of the world's toughest drug laws.

Two Thai nationals were executed by firing squad last month
after being found guilty of smuggling heroin into Indonesia a
decade ago, while a 65-year-old Indian was shot in August after
Indonesia's president turned down an appeal for clemency.

An Italian caught last year in Bali with 2g of marijuana is
serving two years in prison.

Australian Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Kevin Rudd said
Corby's case required some careful diplomacy between Australian and
Indonesia.